Yes. With the movie, for which soundtrack recording is in progress, and names like Usha Uthup, Javed Ali, Najim Arshad, Kshitij Tarey are all set to be there on the covers, here is a chance for you or your band to share the space on the same cover with an original song of yours if you win the contest.

So if you are a musician looking for a chance, or a band, or know someone who might make it his or her big break, just reach Lorien Motion Pictures at http://www.facebook.com/lorienmotionpictures and get the details.

For any further details you may even tweet to @BhargavSaikia.

For one, I was looking for the album every day since 20th September, the day there was so called ‘music launch’ at Hazrat Nizamuddin’s dargah. Still unable to understand why the songs were not available Anywhere even 9 days after launch.

And now finally when I got to know that the songs are available, I went out on the web, at the websites of T-Series as well as on Hungama.com, but while Hungama is not able to send me a password/PIN required for registration with their website, T-Series website straightaway says ‘Product you searched for was not for sale . Please feel free to Shop by Clicking the following Link’ when you click ‘Buy.’

My guess is that with the servers are not able to handle the pressure, something that last happened with Rahman’s Jhootha hi Sahi, when Saregama tried to launch it through their website. And if that is the case, I wonder what is the point in making people wait so much and create such a hype.

In fact such a scenario I would say something like what Vishal Bharadwaj did with Saat Khoon Maaf was nice. His three day advanced launch on Nokia website was a nice idea without much trouble as Nokia servers at least would hopefully be able to handle the load, and even if Nokia is taking a larger share, it would get more people to actually buy the music.

Anyway, how to do it is still the problem of the company. But as a fan what I want is that I should be able to get the song when I click buy and am willing to pay for it.

And, oh, did I tell you that I am still waiting for my Flipkart copy of the CD to be shipped, just like many others who have made it a bestseller even before it’s out?

PS: Dear T-Series, Sadda Haq, Aithe Rakh.

At the end of the play, though, I couldn’t meet him as the majority of my friends wanted to meet Ratna Pathak Shah, and then it was not possible to meet all of them in the given time. Still, I hope there will be times in future when I’d be able to paste a photograph, and if possible a small interview with the man with so many arms. That reminds me of his dialog in the play where he says to Sergius that he works in artillery and has his choice of weapons. If that’s how he composes and acts, he indeed has his choice of weapons.

Six and half years down the line, we were all together, some of us college friends, actually for the Aero Show (which I skipped) in Bangalore but also planning to go for the Bryan Adams concert while I got to know from one of the friends that Lucky Ali would also be playing the same night, at UB City. Now, this YD guy and I were decided that we were going for the Lucky Ali show even thought we had got passes for Bryan Adams concert. Eventually, we all went to Lucky Ali and though we couldn’t get to hear Summer of 69, we got lucky with Lucky Ali, and also, Sachin Tendulkar.

Well, let me come to the concert first. When we reached there, there was a band called Junkyard Groove playing there. While I remember not taking the band seriously when they came to VIT when I was there, this time I liked a few of their songs, including a Twinkle Twinkle little star, how much I love you just the way you are. And after JYG were gone, there was Lucky Ali.

I remembered the last photo of Lucky Ali from his Facebook profile where he sported a beard. But when he came up on the stage, he was simply shining in his shades and red sweater.

He started with a small speech thanking all and saying he’d be singing some of his new album’s songs and started with one song that sounded like a variation of Kaho naa pyaar hai’s ik pal ka jeena and that’s when I was all afraid if this was how the show was going to be. But then I got that Lucky had some other plans, when he suddenly burst into a-aa-a-aa-o-aa-a-aa and the whole original song. As you can easily guess, public response was phenomenal.

And then, lucky went on to sing his old hits like o sanam, sunoh, mausam, nahi rakhta dil mein, tere mere sath, kitni haseen zindagi, tu kaun hai, anjaani rahon mein, aa bhi ja, jaane kya dhoondhta hai, some of his new songs from Xsuie, dil gaaye ja and o raahi. He also sang his hits from new movies, that is hairat from Anjaana Anjaani and bekaraar from Paathshala. Also, once on request of fans sitting there, he suddenly broke into Gori teri aankhen kahen, and while he could not sing all the lines himself, he asked people to fill in and later told that he had not rehearsed the song for the gig. But the most interesting part was the last song he sang, Aao Twist Karen, from his father Mehmood’s movie Bhoot Bangla.

The concert, being held in the UB City amphitheater, had quite a personal feel to it, since the amphitheater is not too large and while almost everyone could see him without any screens being used, the sound was also not much of humdrum but in more of an acoustic setting and the songs were flowing in smoothly. Also, I’d like to mention the musicians there who were just wonderful, especially the guy on Violin (If I remember the name right, it was Manoj) who made the songs of Sur a delight to listen to.

Lucky Ali’s daughter Tasmia sang O Rahi and a few more songs with him while his younger kids Saara and Raiyan were cheering from the audiences.

* All images except first courtesy Vaidyanathan (ydntn photography) who is the greatest fan I know of Lucky Ali and also a wonderful photographer. He has also written the Photography section on this blog earlier. You can watch all his pics from Lucky Ali concert at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=330399&id=690056514&l=c29f3c8845

As you might know or not know, I was selected as a member of the Critics Jury for the music awards for Tweeples’ Film Awards (Twifi Awards).

For the same I was asked to send in my picks for the best music (album), best lyrics (album), best singer (male), best singer (female), and best song (overall).

While I had some problem with the idea of Best lyrics for an entire album, as I think lyrics are related more to a song than an entire album, except for a few cases, and also, most of the times an album has many lyricists while multiple composers, still, is not that common.

Anyway, I checked every film and even though I have heard most of the songs that came out this year irrespective of their banner, composer or popularity, this was a huge and difficult task.

Finally, the list of nominees that I came up with, along with the remarks I have sent to the Twifi Awards, is here. Unfortunately, the list still leaves ‘Best Lyrics’ that I wanted to select from the years words. I hope I’ll be writing on that very soon.

Here go my nominations for Twifi Music Awards:

Best Music (Album)

Udaan
Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai
Ishqiya
Anjaana Anjaani
Paathshala

Best Singer (Male)

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (Mast mast do nain) (Dabangg)
Shankar Mahadevan (Dhundhli dhundhli shaam hui) (Guzaarish)
Nikhil D’Souza, Neuman Pinto, Amit Trivedi (Shaam) (Aisha)
Karthik (Behne de) (Raavan)
KK (Dil kyun ye mera) (Kites)

Best Singer (Female)

Rekha (Badi dheere jali raina) (Ishqiya)
Shruti Pathak (Aas Paas Khuda Unplugged) (Anjaana Anjaani)
Sunidhi (Piya saanvra/Neeyat/Udi) (Striker/Teen Patti/Guzaarish)
Shilpa Rao (Nain Parindey) (Lafangey Parindey)
Shreya Ghoshal, Sona Mahapatra (Bahara) (I Hate Luv Storys)

Best Lyrics (Album)

Ishqiya
Udaan
Lamhaa
Guzaarish
Anjaana Anjaani

Best song (Overall)

Dil To Bachcha hai ji (Ishqiya)
Tujhe Bhula diya (Anjaana Anjaani)
Naav (Udaan)
Ek Udaan/Nadi mein Talab hai (Udaan)
Pee loon (OUATIM)

Remarks

I want to know if there is a procedure for music jury to nominate Emerging Talent from the field of music or will Emerging Talent be decided only by the film jury. In case it’s possible, I’d like to suggest the name of Nikhil D’Souza for singing beautiful songs like Shaam, Mere Bina, Main Jiyoonga and more.

Also, I disagree with the idea of best lyrics for the entire album, but going by the requirement, I have tried my best to select albums with best lyrics overall.

Also, a small clarification, top four picks have NOT been put in order of preference, so please count all top four picks as equal. (Fifth pick, by rules, is a tie breaker only)

One more thing, in case of Sunidhi Chauhan I have put three songs as I do not know which ones may be ignored by others, but in such a scenario, I do not want her not to be nominated just because she sang equally good songs. At the same time it is not a very good idea to nominate her alone for three separate songs. Hence, the vote be considered for any one song, whichever gets the most votes in general.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity.

All the best.

And here is the message I received after submitting the nominations.

Thanks a lot! You Music Nomination Form has been submitted Succesfully! The TwiFi admin team will contact shortly.

The song is actually very much based on Russian song Kalinka, a song written in 1860.

I have no idea how much Vishal is going to acknowledge this in the movie/soundtrack (I hope he does acknowledge), but that sounds very much true. You can listen to the song at the Wikipedia page, and also find a few more links to the song there.

But this time I was surprised with myself and the album, and of course with the guy who made it happen. There is a song called Mere bina, which goes like ‘Mere Bina main, rehne laga hoon/ teri hawaon mein, behne laga hoon/ jaane main kaise, tera hua hoon/ mujhe to lagta hai main shayad tere dil ki dua hoon/ tujhko jo paaya, to jeena aaya/ ab ye lamha theher jaye tham jaye bas jaye hum dono ke darmiyaan.’ The song is sung by Mohit Chauhan, KK and that new guy called Nikhil D’Souza. By the way, if you have never heard the name, NIkhil recently sang Anjaana Anjaani ki Kahani for Vishal-Shekhar. For those who want to know more, he’s a SUTASI finalist, and probably a post-topic for near future.

Anyway, coming back to the song, the song has three instances, and since the makers don’t want people to think ‘why have they given one song thrice’ with their very first looks at the album cover, they have the song with two names, Mere Bina and Tujhko Jo paaya. Mere Bina and its Unplugged version are sung by Nikhil and KK respectively while Tujhko jo paaya, which also sounds like an even more unplugged version, is given to Mohit.

This was the detail. Now comes what is interesting, what makes me write this post. The interesting part is that even with Mohit Chauhan and KK present in the album with the same song, and have sung it in their well known, lovable styles, I’m falling for the version sung by this new guy, Nikhil.

Reasons. One. The guy has an awesome voice and has sung the song just wonderfully. Even though KK and Mohit are as good as ever, Nikhil sounds not just good but new too, and that might be an added plus. Two. His version of the song is really well arranged, the music is definitely good but the way all the experimenting is done on the song, like reversing the beats, it’s just wonderful. (Reversing the beats is not a technical term as far as I know but if you haven’t got what I mean by that, listen to the beats at ‘raahon pe teri’ near 1:52 minutes and observe the similar phenomenon happening in between the song. At the phrase, it gets quite pronounced.) Loved all of it.

And if I still need to say this, I am totally in love with the music of the song, and the lyrics are good too, if not very.

As the last word, I think I know that I’ll be looking for one new name on the album covers now.

PS: Mohit’s version of the song sounds really good too, as he’s been given a completely different task with same lyrics and melody.

For starters, the album starts with a song sung by Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik. Frankly, I don’t remember which was the last album that started like that. The second thing, Vishal Dadlani sings a hopping three out of six songs. Well, personally I’d like Shekhar to sing too, after his bin tere in IHLS, but he’s not there. And yes, as it had to be, Lucky Ali sings yet another song.

As far as release is concerned, I expect the music to be released within this week itself, going by both Nadiadwala and Siddarth’s standard. Here is the soundtrack list.

1. Tere Pyaar Mein (Anjaana Anjaani) – Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
2. Dooba Dooba – Lucky Ali, Shreya Ghoshal
3. Aao Na – Vishal Dadlani
4. Chup Ke Se – Shreya Ghoshal
5. Anjaana Anjaani – Vishal Dadlani, Sunidhi Chauhan
6. Kab Se Dil Mera – Vishal Dadlani
7. Dooba Dooba (Remix) – Lucky Ali, Shreya Ghoshal
8. Aao Na (Remix) – Vishal Dadlani
9. Chup Ke Se (Remix) – Shreya Ghoshal

UPDATE:

A comment from Vishal Dadlani (not verfied, again) says: “All of the rubbish printed above, is untrue. Please verify info before publishing it. Thanks- Vishal.”

So there is a very good chance that the soundtrack list put here is made up by someone. Will get to know only when the CD comes in my hand.

Update Again: I guess the list here is wrong but since I’m unable to get any list verified, I’m not gonna put one here until release this time. In fact, right now the list on Wikipedia doesn’t look too reliable too. So Wait for some time.

Update (18th Aug): The track list is out, but now will see you with review only. Wait till 20th August, the day when Anjaana Anjaani’s music releases.

Now that Karan Johar’s next product We are Family is coming, some of the details are coming out and I’m again getting a feeling that the music of the film will be same again. The typical that happens to be in his movies: one or two songs with a Sufi touch, one party song, like in a bar or something, maybe one philosophical, and quite surely a sad version, and definitely one theme. I think though that after MNIK, WAF also may have one rock-ish number as Suraj Jagan is there again.

For example, I know there is a song called Rehem-o-Karam in the movie and by the very words, I smell a Sufi song. Not that I don’t like Sufi songs but hasn’t he had enough of them in MNIK already? By the way, the song Rehem-o-Karam is sung by Vishal Dadlani along with Shankar Mahadevan. I wish Rehem-o-Karam turns out to be a rock number but chances look kind of bleak.

I know Karan knows what he is doing and I also know that the songs that come out will be wonderful, and at the same time hit, superhit. But I think this way, music loses, and at the end, we lose.

Anyway, all I can do for now is anticipate and guess, until the music release, which is reportedly scheduled for first week of August, though I was expecting end of July, guessing 28th. And all I wish is that I’m proved wrong, and KJo and SEL bring us the best music we have ever heard. Amen.

Update: Here is the detailed soundtrack of the movie.

1. Ankhon Mein Neendein – Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shreya Ghoshal, Shankar Mahadevan (5:02)
2. Dil Khol Ke Let’s Rock – Anushka Manchanda, Akriti Kakkar, Suraj Jagan (03:57)
3. Reham O Karam – Vishal Dadlani, Shankar Mahadevan (05:47)
4. Hamesha & Forever – Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal, Tara Waaliya (04:51)
5. Sun Le Dua Yeh Aasmaan (Theme Slow Version) – Shankar Mahadevan (03:53)
6. We Are Family (Theme) – Dominique Cerejo, Clinton Cerejo, Neuman Pinto, Vivienne Pocha (02:48)

01 – Udd Udd Dabangg – Sukhwinder Singh, Wajid
02 – Tere Mast Do Nain – Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Arshikha Loey
03 – Munni Badnaam Hui – Mamta Sharma, Aishwarya
04 – Chori Kiya Re Jiya – Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
05 – Humka Peeni Hai – Wajid , Master Salim, Shabaab Shabri
06 – Tere Mast Do Nain (Part 2) – Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shreya Ghoshal
07 – Munni Badnaam Hui (Remix) – Mamta Sharma, Aishwarya
08 – Tere Mast Do Nain (Remix) – Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Arshikha Loey
09 – Humka Peeni Hai – Wajid, Master Salim, Shabaab Shabri

The music for the album will be released in the first week of August. Most probably on 5th or 6th of the month.